Pocket of Bolts and I are in Miami for the weekend: a college friend of his is getting married. The wedding wasn't until three, and being on our customary schedule, we had time to kill. Although I have a bad cold just now, around noon or so I finally decided that, what with the place we're staying being steps away from Miami Beach, it would be silly not to go swimming. I mean, how often do you get to swim outside in November!? Well, maybe very often if you actually *live* in Miami, or Hawaii... but for me it's a rare experience.Interesting to say, I find swimming in the ocean very terrifying. When I was a little kid, we went to Huntington Beach in California, and somehow I didn't get properly instructed as to how to deal with breakers. Somehow or other, I got tossed around by a rough wave, and have been a bit phobic about them ever since. This, although I know *now* how to duck under waves if they are too big. And besides, this was an Atlantic Beach and the waves were fairly modest. No ocean features named after Satan, as Pocket of Bolts would say (unlike in Oregon).
Pocket of Bolts plunges into the ocean. He loves swimming in it. He is so strong, and it is so strong against him; it's like clashing of titans. I went in more cautiously, catching my breath whenever a big wave seemed to be forming. But--it is so no difficult to grab a breath and slip under. The roar of the water is instantly muted into a sandy trickling noise, and the threatening white thundercloud of wave disappears into mild bubbly swaying feeling that just passes over your body and then leaves you behind.
Not mind you that I am the picture of elegance diving under wave or anything. I tend to plug my nose and leave my ankles up in the air. Pocket of Bolts said, If you don't plug your nose, it's like saline nasal rinse. Good point!
1 comment:
There is no such thing as human power when compared to the ocean. You only have the choice to go with the waves, let them pass through and around you, tossed like a leave catching the current.
The ocean has almost killed me more than once. Yes Devil's elbow in Oregon was one of those spots. I got tossed in the wave on the Santa Monica beach, tried to swim for the surface and hit a the sand, then flipped again. But with time the ocean becomes a friend. Sure it is much more powerful than you can ever be, and it never cares about you, you just have to learn to ride it.
Eventually even 3m rises and falls within a meter of rocks just seem normal, you push off the rock and go where the waves bring you.
Hope you enjoyed Florida, I have a few fond memory's of November time trips down that way from when I lived in Chicago.
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